As I said in the Disney thread, I'm just glad Dark Horse will at least go out on a bang with things like Star Wood and the new Legacy series.

So if sales pick up and get back to the highs that DH was enjoying a few years ago, it might at least give Marvel more reason to continue some of the top sellers, rather than throwing everything out just to do EP7 tie-ins.

by this point I actually do wonder if Episode 7 will be Star Wars at all except in name only..

sure old actors returning as cameos.. but honestly... will John Williams do the soundtrack? What if he does not last that long, god I hope he will! Hans Zimmer sure is his apprentice and a worthy successor if needed, but... SW without Williams is not Star Wars!

I mean... no Fox fanfare.. no EU.. no Dark Horse.. maybe not even Williams in worst case...

this is like Pirates of the Caribbean 4... a Sequel nobody needed or wanted, Johnny Depp included! at least not a sequel the way it was done, given it was done for the money only instead true to the spirit.

Okay, that's part of it, but also there's the fact that currently Marvel doesn't concentrate much on licensed fiction and doesn't give much attention to the licensed stuff it does produce. I'd assume Star Wars would be a bigger deal than usual so I'm not worried we'll get ~no comics~ but I am worried that Marvel's focus on initial sales of floppies vs long term consideration of trade paperback sales, and its demanding sales expectations will see a lot of very safe EP7 tie-in stuff and almost nothing daring like Legacy, DOTJ or KOTOR. Though Zorr is right; if Legacy sells well now that may prompt them to pay it a little more attention.

But I genuinely am concerned about the TPB situation. Marvel publishes trades of its single issue stuff almost as an afterthought and it goes out of print very, very quickly. Given that Star Wars comics sell to both comic fans and Star Wars fans, and that a lot of that second group pick up trades in bookstores not comic shops, it's a troubling attitude.

Don't expect anything like the Dark Horse Omnibus programme. Sure, you'll get omnibuses, but they'll be devastatingly beautiful, enormous, hardbacked coffee-table books collecting the most popular storylines and they'll be out of print in eighteen months, they won't be bookshelf-sized, reasonably-priced paperbacks trying to collect everything with the goal of remaining in print for the foreseeable future.

As I said in the Disney thread, I'm just glad Dark Horse will at least go out on a bang with things like Star Wood and the new Legacy series.

So if sales pick up and get back to the highs that DH was enjoying a few years ago, it might at least give Marvel more reason to continue some of the top sellers, rather than throwing everything out just to do EP7 tie-ins.

I hope so. I would love Dawn of the Jedi to continue past 2014. I would hope Marvel would continue the top sellers and really investigate the SW universe before they start up. If Marvel did this, they'd have me as a reader again.

Marvel bankrupt? ouch... and they given THEM Star Wars? it will tear SW down to oblivion

and I do have hopes and optimism too, just currently I post not that side of myself

what I do also fear is.. where are MARVEL novels? Avengers, Iron Man as novel? it would sell and work well.. but does it exist? not really. not even much for movie novelisations there. so... is this what awaits SW? Disney views it as multimedia and visual, for the family and younger people, like their disney parks do. So... will Adult SW ever survive? or will SW novels decline given fanbase critique for Delrey so that they might even cancel the novel deals alltogether in the future at some point.. especially since novels with their detail are too continuity heavy for the quick movie business with movies every few years and novels limiting them or turned infinities by them anyways soon then so novels turn to fanfiction you pay money for like with Star Trek, whereas comics stick to the movies and never journey much beyond them to wait for the next movie?

their entire so far announced business model scares me! it is predictable and far from what fans want, and ultimately, even if they got hordes of moviepurists and EU haters to support their new waves of merchandise, they will drive SW down and against a tree so to speak with that. For even if the masses are not EU lovers... without the EU, there'd today be NO SW to buy or return to for George. SW would be just another bunch of movies that are cool and ageless but not really a huge expanded franchise worth the sum Disney paid.

It would be a stupid, stupid move on the part of Disney - I know corporate logic is: If it's not broke then break it in order to fix it, but I'd like to think they're smarter than that.

I imagine wanting greater creative control over it (especially if they're wiping the EU off the map) might also have something to do with it. From a profit-centered point of view, it would be a fairly reasonable decision, as well, I think.

I assumed the EU novels would continue in some form from Hyperion when the current deal with Del Rey expires. That's probably silly of me to assume, but it would make sense to continue publishing EU books right? Although it remains to be seen whether I'll be buying them.

It would be a stupid, stupid move on the part of Disney - I know corporate logic is: If it's not broke then break it in order to fix it, but I'd like to think they're smarter than that.

I imagine wanting greater creative control over it (especially if they're wiping the EU off the map) might also have something to do with it. From a profit-centered point of view, it would be a fairly reasonable decision, as well, I think.

How far are you taking this then? LFL already has veto over any SW project. What more is required? Determining who works on what projects?

Because if so, what is the practical difference between Marvel and DHC in this respect? They're both effectively intermediaries. One is owned by Disney sure, but seems to have as much autonomy as it did before.

My own suspicion is this is a level of detail the Disney execs are likely not all that interested in, it's too small a piece of the pie - plus there's a lot to be gained with sticking with an established and successful brand rep, which is what DHC have done.

How far are you taking this then? LFL already has veto over any SW project. What more is required? Determining who works on what projects?

Staff control and brand name recognition are probably positives from their perspective, yes. Marvel's focus on sales, as detailed above by beccatoria, would also likely be more in line with Disney's own attitude toward their newly-acquired franchise. Marvel is, simply, better-equipped to fulfill Disney's expectations in this scenario.

Very, very unfortunate, but I think we all (including the good folks over at DH) knew this was coming.

Although it's interesting to read the stuff about Marvel and their policies about trades here. The only major Marvel books I think I've ever read have been their Dark Tower series and the adaptation of The Stand. I thought both were handled pretty well, especially for tie-ins. And both have very mature situations, as well.

My only big complaints are they get sold as hardcovers first (and for absurdly long times as well) and that the collections don't contain any of the cool side-stories and background bits from the single issues. But other than that I've been pleased with those two series. So hopefully Marvel's new Star Wars will be more in line with those projects than its normal book lines.

How far are you taking this then? LFL already has veto over any SW project. What more is required? Determining who works on what projects?

Staff control and brand name recognition are probably positives from their perspective, yes. Marvel's focus on sales, as detailed above by beccatoria, would also likely be more in line with Disney's own attitude toward their newly-acquired franchise. Marvel is, simply, better-equipped to fulfill Disney's expectations in this scenario.

I'm not convinced of that, here's why:

On monthly comic sales, I think you'd be correct.

But on the bigger trades market? Marvel have a dismal, dismal record in this, I'd wager DHC's is a damn sight stronger, the problem is it's hard to acquire reliable data in this area. But there's quite a few cases of not very successful monthly comics making an absolute killing on trades. Brian Wood's DMZ for example.

Very, very unfortunate, but I think we all (including the good folks over at DH) knew this was coming.

Although it's interesting to read the stuff about Marvel and their policies about trades here. The only major Marvel books I think I've ever read have been their Dark Tower series and the adaptation of The Stand. I thought both were handled pretty well, especially for tie-ins. And both have very mature situations, as well.

My only big complaints are they get sold as hardcovers first (and for absurdly long times as well) and that the collections don't contain any of the cool side-stories and background bits from the single issues. But other than that I've been pleased with those two series. So hopefully Marvel's new Star Wars will be more in line with those projects than its normal book lines.

Hint: Buy the big slipcased hardcover omnbuseses of those Steve!

True, Marvel did put some top talent on those projects but is that move likely to be representative of its approach to SW? I don't know. There's nothing to require consistency from them in this respect.

My expectations? $3.99 per issue, double-shipping with 4-issue TPBs at the same price as the existing 5-6 issue TPBs.

This makes me nerdrage so much about the Marvel omnibuses. I'm relatively new to comics, and would have definitely bought some of the omnibuses that have gone out of print (looking at you, Astonishing X-men and Walt Simonson Thor, which went out of print recently). Who knows, maybe they'll reprint them in a few years.